Web Browsing
Mozilla Firefox
The premier free, open-source browser. Tabs, pop-up blocking, themes, and extensions. Considered by many to be the world's best browser.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Video Player, BitTorrent, Podcasting
Miro
Beautiful interface. Plays any video type (much more than windows media player). Subscribe to video RSS, download, and watch all in one. Torrent support. Search and download from YouTube and others.
http://www.getmiro.com/
IM - Instant Messaging
Pidgin
Connect to multiple IM accounts simultaneously in a single app, including: AOL IM, MSN, and Jabber.
http://www.pidgin.im/pidgin/home/
Video Converter- MP4, iPhone, Android
Miro Video Converter
http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/
Download helpers
SkipScreen
A Firefox extension that skips unnecessary clicks and wait times on Rapidshare, Megaupload, Mediafire, zShare, and more.
http://skipscreen.com/
Mozilla Thunderbird
Powerful spam filtering, solid interface, and all the features you need.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
RSS
RSSOwl
Solid cross-platform RSS client.
http://www.rssowl.org/download
Peer-to-Peer Filesharing
Cabos
A simple, easy to use filesharing program. Gnutella network.
http://cabos.sourceforge.jp/
Gnucleus
A very good Gnutella search and download filesharing program.
http://www.gnucleus.org/Gnucleus/
Video Playback
VLC
Plays more video files than most players: Quicktime, AVI, DIVX, OGG, and more. Pretty good interface.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
MPlayer
Similar to VLC-- plays loads of video formats.
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html
Media Player Classic
Compact, but powerful media player. Plays anything under the sun. No install necessary.
http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/
Word Processing / Office Suites
LibreOffice
Big, full featured suite of tools for word processing and spreadsheets. Compatible with and a free replacement for Microsoft Word documents. Also supports OpenDocument Format.
http://www.libreoffice.org/download/
AbiWord
A word processor. Leaner and quicker than OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft Word documents and OpenDocument Format.
http://www.abisource.com/download/
Podcasting
Juice
Solid podcasting client
http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/index.php
Financial Transactions
A "peer-to-peer" digital currency so you can buy things without paying transaction fees.
http://www.bitcoin.org/
